The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, assured the House that there would be no increase in the price of electricity because of EU emissions schemes.
He said that the free allocation of emissions allowances, under the EU emissions trading schemes, would have the effect of driving up the price of electricity. "Instead such gains are to be recycled into the electricity sector to minimise price increases arising from the need by Ireland to fulfil its commitments to reducing harmful emissions under the Kyoto agreement."
The Fine Gael spokesman on communications, Mr Simon Coveney, said Ireland had now moved close to the top of the list, just behind Italy, in terms of the cost of energy. "Does the Minister agree that it is not a valid argument to say that the increased costs are as a result of upgrading the grid, since other European countries have to upgrade their networks and grids too? Are we so different?"
Mr Ahern said that as a result of EU directives, Ireland was required, in effect, to depoliticise the pricing issue, so that it now had an independent energy pricing regulator. "Significant investment is required in Ireland, because as a result of economic growth we have probably one of the highest demands on electricity. It is estimated that in the next couple of years we will demand three per cent to four per cent year-on-year increases in electricity capacity because of the economic situation." Mr Ahern said they could not escape the fact that Ireland was a peripheral island which in relation to gas, and especially electricity, was not interconnected in the way it otherwise was in Europe.
